Five Birthdays
by nanu107
Summary: The fact that personally I don't like to celebrate my birthday doesn't mean I don't get to celebrate yours, right?
1. Balthazar's

**Five Birthdays**

Prompt 000: No Prompt! Just some silly fun… I so I think.

If there was something Balthazar liked was to be informed of the things those around him were doing. Veronica, most specially and of course, included. And there was something else he liked, of his wife; she always consulted things with him before actually doing them. She didn't ask for permission, mind you, Veronica was old and capable enough to do things, but she enjoyed telling Balthazar about her things, and her husband was always more than willing to listen. Balthazar had been reading a rather interesting sci-fi novel Dave had loaned for the weekend, who would have though his apprentice read something as interesting as Michael Chrichton?, and Veronica entered the living room with a smile and several papers.

"Beloved, are you too busy?"

"Barely, what is it?"

"I've been considering continuing my studies." That got Balthazar's full attention. The book was slapped shut, not in a bad way, as Veronica sat before him expanding the brochures she had over the center table. NYU Arts programs, Law School, Science mayors… This woman was considering making up for lost time, eh? "I've been reading these and find them so interesting, especially the science mayors. I was considering first the school of arts, then probably languages, and laws. And probably science…"

"Veronica this is…Overwhelming." Said Balthazar lifting the Law School brochure. "Not that is not a good idea, I'm glad you wish to continue learning… But isn't it too sudden?"

"No, no. Absolutely not, I think it's a good idea. We have no children yet, what will make the first degree easily achievable, and I was considering continuing studying after we had our first child…" Balthazar leaned back on his seat, smiling.

"You have been thinking for a long time about this, haven't you?"

Veronica blushed, apparently his suspicion been real and then bit her lip. "Does it bother you?"

"No, of course not. As I said I am very glad you wish to finish your education. But things are quite different."

"But you know that when I put my mind into something…"

"Yes, I am aware." Again he smiled and looked down at the brochure he held. "So have you already decided in New York University? Or can I show you other options."

"NYU is best, it's closer. And I know some of it's students."

"Of course."

"So what do you think? Law, arts or Languages? And there's also mathematical science…" Balthazar watched her talk, considering to herself the options she had available, able all back in the day when they were studying they didn't have the choice youngsters have now… "So probably languages would be better to start on, right? I am quite fluid in several of the ones offered, and so are you, so you might be able to help me study."

"Beloved, whatever you choose will be fine by me, just… Let me know your schedules so I won't rip my hair off searching for you while you are in class." That got her to smile, and quickly gathering her brochures she stood, granted him a deep long kiss, and excited hurried away. "You might want to buy a computer! And ask Becky to show you how to use it!"

"Alright!"

Balthazar offered to pay for the first semester; after all the trust fund he'd created a couple hundred years ago was specifically created to pay for studies (but probably he'd expected those studies to be his children's) and Veronica promised to find a job and pay it right back. Balthazar had laughed it off. If it made her happy Balthazar would lay a monthly check for her to study, or do whatever… When class started Veronica was out for longer than usual, and during the first weeks Balthazar worried, but every day she came home with a new story, loaded with homework and fighting to understand the new technology (in a shape of a HP Mini whatever), but happy. Yet he was oddly aware that because of her studies, and Dave's and even Becky's he was a slave to the university's Academic Calendar; thing that was unforgiving and harsh during regular months and even worse during recesses.

Never had he longed for Spring break with such tenacity.

During finals he spent his morning stuck in the living room, watching the TV because all three students were too busy cramming up all the information required for the tests. Needless to say he saw more than one bottom of cool whip tub. His birthday had rolled by in silence, not even a word from Veronica (thing that was weir) and although he wasn't too fond of celebrating his birthday he'd though that it would probably produce a halt in the other three's study processes and at least say _Happy Birthday_ to him. But so far nothing, not that he was depressed, just… They were always so adamant in celebrating his birthday and he was always denying them the joy… So he was a year older so what?

He didn't look anything over thirty five.

Yet.

That evening he sat on his couch, in comfortable house clothes (a pajama and slippers) watching a Lord of the Rings marathon, Tank beside him, been petted from time to time, and chewing gum. It wasn't the first time he found himself in such place, it was however the first time all three students had gotten together to study for a test. They thought it would be fun to take a class together and they even teamed up to make several oral reports, but this final was an individual test and the younger ones were after Veronica for her fluidity in both German and French… What made no sense because they had taken a course in Russian.

More than once had either Dave or Becky appeared from the hallway, asked Balthazar how to pronounce something and then gone back to their claustrophobic studying environment for three.

"Beloved!" Balthazar turned to the hallway.

"Yes?"

"Can you… uhm help us here for a moment?"

Tank groaned and Balthazar turned to look at the dog. "You think I should?" It growled softly, then whined. "Yeah, I though so." He got up and padded slowly towards the room. "If you are asking me how to say rainbow in Russian again…"

Several handfuls of confetti slapped him in the face, blowouts sounds were heard and Veronica's voice started singing the usual happy birthday song. Too stunned to actually react Balthazar watched as his apprentice and Becky laughed, joining in the singing. Veronica was holding a cake, with only one candle lighted over it, and smiling at him.

And there he was standing too stupefied to even react.


	2. Dave's

**Five Birthdays**

Prompt 000: Drunk

Author's Ramblings: I think Veronica can be very sweet, but I also believe that she can be quite evil. Read and find out what I mean.

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Balthazar was sitting and leaning on the side of the sofa, looking defeated. Veronica appeared from their room, and noticed him sitting there, heart growing heavy with a little worry. He still wore the same clothes he'd left in last night, his hair was pulled back and tightly contained (something amazing in fact), his clothes askew and his gloves were missing. As a matter of fact the only things he wore on his hands were his wedding and sorcery rings. On his wrist there was a small band of neon colors, and as she neared Veronica noticed he was rubbing his face with one hand.

"Balthazar?" the man turned, quickly towards her, his eyes bloodshot and wide. It took a moment for him to realize who he was looking at and he stood, something wrapped in aluminum foil fell to the ground and he smiled.

"Yes Veronica?"

"Is everything alright?" As she spoke he burped inwardly, them grimaced.

"Fine. Perfect actually."

Veronica took quick asset of the situation, arched and eyebrow and narrowed her eyes slightly.

"Are you drunk?"

"Me?"

"Yes, you."

There was a moment in which Balthazar frowned, looking away, and then gave her a toothy grin. "Yes, I am."

"Why are you drunk?" it was a valid question, he'd gone out last night with Dave, to train, and had not returned; Veronica wasn't the type to worry too much about Balthazar because he could take care of himself, but apparently she'd been too trusting. Not that Balthazar was the kind of man of going out and doing crazy unforgivable things, but to see him so… disheveled so early in the morning was weir, if not unnatural. He was the man to at least start the day looking presentable, by sorcery Blake standards anyway. Balthazar swallowed hard and smiled again.

"I was with Dave." From the floor, a lanky form covered with a Bob The Builder sheet lifted, what Veronica thought was the head moved and Balthazar kicked it back down; a recognizable yelp was heard and Balthazar smiled. "Why don't you go sleep love," A little hic. "I'll be there in a minute."

"Balthazar is seven in the morning, I've slept all night."

"Oh." He turned a little away, the sound of aluminum foil suddenly invading the silence they shared, and a whine following. "Wow." Was all Balthazar could produce, before rubbing his face again.

Veronica arched an eyebrow.

"Where did you go with Dave?"

"We went drinking, dancing, and all around merry making."

"Have you been carrying this drunker stupor all night long?"

"Yesssss." He answered, loosing a little his balance and holding himself against the couch.

"Oh really?"

"Yeah! I'm so drunk I can't remember how to do that hangover fighter mix." From his pocket, Balthazar produced a small bottle of rum, and started to uncap it, while from the floor Dave lifted, Bob the Builder still wrapped around him, and tried to take the bottle from Balthazar. "So I'll just have a hair of a dog…"

"No… mine…" Mumbled Dave though the bite of the burrito Balthazar had dropped.

Veronica's ring took on its usual lavender glow and the bottle flew to her hands. "Enough! You two are too drunk, now stop dragging your drunk cheer and follow me to the kitchen. After we get something into your stomachs you are both going to sleep." Both sorcerers looked down, ashamed, as Veronica shook her head and moved towards the kitchen angry. Dave stood, keeping the sheet around his shoulders and Balthazar turned to him; the older man shushed Dave with his finger and reaching into his pocket pulled out another bottle. The two men started giggling, and uncapping the bottle they shared. "Balthazar and Dave!"

"Coming!" Cried Balthazar, as Dave bit the burrito again.

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Veronica had to slap the burrito off Dave's hand, and the boy just frowned and sat across from his master, who was sitting on the table and putting a kitchen towel into his shirt's neck. Without much patience Veronica heated two bowls full of Chef Boyardee and placed the bowls before each of them, murmuring in Italian. Balthazar looked into Dave's bowl, saw the lasagna and exchanged the two bowls, as Dave whined and got stuck with the boring spaghetti. "I can't believe this of you two, I thought you were off to practice."

"We did practice." Defended Balthazar, moving his spoon around the sauce and little pasta bits.

"Yeah, we started drinking after practice." A moment of silence and a wet sponge hit Dave on the face, making the boy yelp and fall sideways and to the floor while Veronica slapped Balthazar's hand down, scolding him.

"Eat, just eat! We'll talk later!"

Dave sat back up; face still wet and frowning slightly. They went through their meal in silence, as the coffee pot started brewing some much needed coffee for Veronica and the light started filtering through the windows. Veronica watched them start to loose their drunker stupor and smiled when Dave fell asleep and almost hit the spaghetti bowl. She stood, changing Dave to his five year old body and carried the boy to bed, remembering to turn him back to his twenty year old body to avoid his death through alcohol poisoning. She shook her head, covering him with his Bob the Builder sheet and left the room, the door was slightly open, just in case he might need something. Quickly she returned to the kitchen and found Balthazar digging into the open fridge, his mouth full of whipped cream.

"Balthazar!"

"Wha…?"

"Give me that!" She took the cool whip from his hand, and slapped the back of his head, making him complain that it hurt and then dragged him back to their room. "Aren't you ashamed? Dragging Dave into this ridiculous activities. Childish,childish men." She ranted, taking off his dirty coat, and finding his shirt was wet with something she could not identify.

"He asked me to take him out parting." Was all he could say on his defense.

"Why? Because he's a minor still… You should have said no…" Warned Veronica, touching the shirt, and amazed it was some sort of gel. She brought it to her nose, and sniffed it cautiously.

"Actually he's turning twenty-one today, I wanted to be the first to celebrate with him." He said softly, as if melancholic, and turned to look at Veronica, who had an eyebrow arched. "Oh, that's… Yeah…"

"Jell-O?"

Balthazar let out a whine, and smiled. "I might have visited a disco, so… I'm not sure where I got that…"

"Disco?"

"More like a sorority house party, they had this jell-o pool.." He stared at Veronica who was staring at him quite intently and smiled. "I'm digging my own grave, aren't I?" She gave a smile and nodded. "You know what? I'll explain everything just ask me when I wake up."

And with that he fell backwards on bed and gave out a loud snore. Veronica shook her head, taking a deep breath.

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Light was banned from the house. Both sorcerers had made sure all windows, doors, glass and any practical means for the light to filter into the home had been sealed shut and dark; the place was cold, allowing them to bask in the glory of silence and snuggled into their clothes and sheets. Balthazar was curled in his usual leather recliner; head covered with a thick warm throw, a scarf covering his eyes just to make sure his head did not further. Dave across from him on the small sofa was also curled and moaning from time to time against his pillow.

The sound of a vacuum cleaner echoed into the living room, making both men groan and cover their ears in pain. The sound was followed by music and Veronica's loud singing.

Why oh why had Veronica decided to clean the store and stairs today?

"Your wife is evil!"

Balthazar couldn't even answer to that, he just reached from under his throw and searched around the side of the recliner, found a bottle of something and snatched it into the warm depths of his cocoon. The sound was halted for a moment…

The hammering that followed was even louder.

"Ok, that does it."

"You are going to tell her to be quiet?"

"No, I'm going to the bathroom to throw up." And Balthazar hurried down the hallway, as Dave sat up and groaned with the pounding of his head, blood complaining because it had to go up into his hurting brain. The hammering stopped, the music still blaring, and Veronica made her way upstairs, finding Dave sitting there.

"Oh! Hello Dave!" She said, louder than really necessary, making the boy groan.

"Hi Veronica."

"Enjoying your hangover?" She said, aging louder than necessary, and walked into the kitchen.

"Ahh…" He fell back to the couch, and Balthazar returned, looking pale and with a towel covering his mouth.

"Excedrin?" He asked to Dave, who just lifted his hand, as if begging for a few coins, and Balthazar dropped the pills into the palm. Dave muffled something against the pillow, probably a grateful _thank God_, and drank the pills with the frozen orange juice he'd served himself a few hours ago. "You know where the bathroom is."

"For what?"

"For when you need to throw up."

"Thanks." The sound of pans and pots falling and clanging on the floor made both men rub their heads, and Balthazar just sat on his recliner and rested his head over his hand. When Veronica walked by, greeting him as loud as she had greeted Dave, Balthazar just smiled at her, nodding.

"Is she angry because we got drunk?"

"No, she's angry because we got drunk _without_ her."

Downstairs the vacuum cleaner was started up again. After a few groans, and cuddling into their little cocoons of warmth and security, Balthazar placed a spell to stop sound from entering the living room, what had Dave sighing. "Even after all this pain; thanks for an awesome birthday."

Balthazar nodded, and gave a quiet smile. "Happy birthday, Dave."

Veronica came up the stairs at that moment, and with a simple tap on the invisible wall Balthazar had created, sound returned to the living room. "Oops! Sorry!" and she walked down the stairs again.


	3. Becky's

**Five Birthdays**

Prompt 000: Joint

Now Balthazar felt that he'd gotten in smashed and acting stupidly. But he'd though they all learned from that; not Dave though who had wished to repeat again and again to try and figure out a cure for hangovers. Yet no, the collective mind had not learned a thing from _Dave's twenty first hangover party_, as the even has come to be known as.

He could feel anger boiling by the second, but then it would cool down with the thought that at least Becky was with her. Maybe that should count for something… Who was he fooling? Dave had been with him too and he'd gotten an alcohol poisoning when he woke up. When his brain could not take the idea of Veronica hanging out there with Becky and a 'couple of friends' for Becky's birthday Balthazar stood, walked right to the front door, was about to put on his coat when his brain screamed; _What are you doing? Don't you trust your wife?_

Women were not as men, they were gentler, full of sense and reason; especially Veronica, who had grown in such a conservative age. So Balthazar stopped, walked back upstairs and decided to get busy with something. Maybe, just maybe, if he concentrated enough, he might get his mind off Veronica's current whereabouts.

So he started working on that book he had so much thought about while traveling. It wasn't the autobiography all clans and magical newscasters predicted he would publish, instead he focused in the discussion of several very important Merlinian topics; Merlin's magic, life and doings. He started drafting his outline; about Merlin, about apprentices, about Arthur and the court of Camelot, about the days of old, about the battle of Camland, about Morgana's rising… He literally went for hours. His outline was, so far he wasn't yet finished, forty two pages long, but it described most mayor topics. He had consumed a tub of Cool Whip, had several candles halfway through (he had electricity it just that he liked to feel like he was in the old times) and his feet were snuggled against several pillows he set on the ground. And if it wasn't because he felt one of the seals placed against burglars at the store's door been broken he might have continued. The second seal was breached and he frowned, then the third seal and fourth. When the fifth seal was breached and the sixth was halfway through Balthazar stood, the chair behind him rolling away as hurried down the stairs and landed with a loud thudding sound in the dark hallway of his apartment, Balthazar felt the seventh seal been tampered with and walked quietly downt he stairs, the lights still dark; the seventh seal was played with, caressed, asked to please open up and then whoever was dealing with such high level spell was giggling, only to break down into a loud rich laughter that echoed in the inside of the store.

Frowning, Balthazar looked at the door, the glass was darkened with the shadows of the would-be burglars as they continued to try and enter the store. It could not be Horvath or his goons, they would have already entered, but then again Horvath wasn't known for been around the intelligent kind. Balthazar heard the door been banged, then one of the figures straightened and put something on his/her mouth, while the other one banged his/her head against the frosted glass of the door. The giggling resumed, then the laughing and Balthazar frowned.

He unlocked and opened the door; there was Becky leaning against the door, and because the support had been removed she fell to her side (instead of forward) and landed on Veronica's side at the railing; Veronica herself had a small cigarette in her mouth; the illegal kind of cigarette. The sorceress held her breath and threw the joint to the street, where it catch fire to leave no proof. The three of them just stared at each other, Becky laughing while Veronica was holding her breath; then laughter could not be contained and veronica started laughing freely, smoke escaping her mouth and nose, and Balthazar was pretty sure her ears also. Both women continued laughing, turning to each other and falling serious…

Before laughing even louder.

Balthazar realized some of the neighbor's lights were turning on and with a frown got both women into the store, closing the doors and the broken seals without effort, but angry. "Look at both of you! What happened?"

"Nothing." Chide Becky, losing her step and falling to the carpet floor. "Oh, I've falling."

"Let me help you." Said Veronica, now less smoky, and taking Becky's hand and pulling… only to fall to the ground herself. "Oh, I falling too." More laughter followed.

Balthazar closed his eyes, caressing his forehead and wondering how he was to deal with this. So he decided not to; "Alright you two! Bed time!"

"Yay!" Said Veronica getting up and helping Becky up. "Bedtime story time!"

"Oh, great! Can I hear the real story of little red ridding hood?"

"I'm sure Balthazar knows it."

"I'm not telling you bedtime stories!"

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That morning Balthazar walked to the kitchen picked the marker and wrote:_ Out for breakfast, be back soon. BB._ And left. He knew what would happen, he still could remember those long drives when he was at England and Ireland with Becky, and keeping quiet he stepped out of the house.

That's what veronica got for scaring the living lights out of him.

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A loud sound was echoing in her ears, close by.

Veronica was starting to wake up… and she just wanted to drop dead until the pain her head was currently suffering receded. She was still wearing last night's outfit, the clothes Becky and her friends had so fashionably sense fully selected and was suddenly aware that she was not in her bed. Opening her eyes, frowning because of pain, Veronica slid off the bed, not willingly though. After the haze of pain and surprise left her Veronica realized she'd fallen off the bed and looked around herself… The guest room? How did she got here? Oh and this sudden need to throw up!

Then she heard it, what had woken her up.

Snoring.

Who was snoring?

Getting up quickly, or as quickly as a hangover would allow, Veronica groaned because each snore sent a million prickles of pain down her spine and deep into the darkest part of her brain, and who would have thought that deep abyss of darkness was so… deep. Another snore, more pain, and a groan later Veronica was able to look at the lump of glitter, jeans and heels over the bed, covered with a throw.

Becky snores! Her brain screamed, quickly regretting it because it hurt to even think.

What did we do last night, brain? She asked, feeling the little giggling of her wrist band's bells, the weight of her earrings, the smell of her perfume, booze and something else she still could not identify. Veronica moved to the door, hoping to get this smell (and away from the snoring) and pulled the knob.

It wouldn't budge. She tried three more times, all with the same result, and almost sobbed with the need for aspirin or so called it Balthazar when he and Dave had their hangover…

Wait a moment.

"Balthazar?" She said, knocking the door softly, each echoing sound burying little needles into her eyes as Becky turned, snoring stopping for a moment…Resuming louder. "Balthazar?" She called again, unaware her husband had left the house for breakfast…

And to tell Dave about his stoned girlfriend.

Author's Ramblings: There, that's why you should be nice to people with hangovers, especially if they know all about you. Now if I could only figure out how to celebrate Veronica's birthday… Thanks for reading and remember to review!


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